What do you really owe on your home mortgage when you get to the end of your Chapter 13 case? For years, homeowners couldn’t tell where they were or how to get answers. But with the recent changes to bankruptcy rules, you don’t have to wonder where you stand with your mortgage lender. Starting December […]
Pay Off Credit Cards Without Interest: Bankruptcy For The Solvent
Once again, Chapter 13 rescued a client. He’ll get out of debt and pay off credit cards with no interest going forward. So many people tell me they could pay off the credit card balance if it wasn’t for the high interest. This client owned a home, had a job, and was solvent on paper, but […]
Co Signers Put Themselves In Creditor’s Crosshairs
The liability of a co signer is the single most common misunderstanding about the law that I see. Put bluntly, a co-signer is just as liable for the debt as the primary borrower. Co sign someone else’s debt and you put yourself in the creditor’s cross hairs. That should make the hair on the back […]
Cheat Sheet For Passing Bankruptcy Means Test
The bankruptcy means test has a fatal weakness in its attempt to keep people out of bankruptcy. Like so much recently, it’s health care. It’s health care, in the future, to be paid before your creditors get any money in your bankruptcy. It works because, in a logic that only Congress could employ, the means […]
Bail Yourself Out Of Payroll Tax Trouble
Business owners with unpaid payroll taxes are in deep trouble. Even if the employer is a corporation, the corporation’s managers are personally liable for the trust fund portion of unpaid payroll taxes. There’s no corporate shield when it comes to payroll taxes. You are in the IRS’s cross hairs, personally, if the business hands out “net” checks […]
California Bankruptcy Law Is All Our Own
California Bankruptcy law is a lot like a unicorn….appealing but imaginary. Instead, we have bankruptcy in California, where the landscape is shaped by community property; state exemptions, large mortgages, and the 9th circuit court of appeals. Like the Merced River cutting through the granite of Yosemite, those factors alter the bankruptcy landscape here. Community property […]
Which Bankruptcy Chapter Is Right For Me?
Seven or Thirteen? 13 or 7? When you have a choice, how do you decide which chapter of bankruptcy works best? Usually, the choice is driven by the scope of the discharge and the kind of debts you have. More kinds of debts are dischargeable in Chapter 13 and the automatic stay protects you for the […]
Who Files Bankruptcy In The Face Of Booming Bay Area Economy?
Silicon Valley is booming; our highways are so full of people getting to work that we can’t get to work. Employment is approaching the level of the dot.com bubble. Property values are outrageous. So who files bankruptcy in this pocket of prosperity? All kinds of people, it turns out. Let’s look at the people who sought […]
What You Need To Know About Reaffirmation In Bankruptcy
Decisions, decisions. Are you going to reaffirm the car loan? Your bankruptcy filing requires that you state your intentions about reaffirmation right up front. Translated, that means what are you going to do about the car after bankruptcy. The car on which you still owe money and need to get to work. In the midst […]
Pay Down Debt Or Save? Which Should Come First
Pay off debt first or start saving now? It’s a debate almost as convoluted as which came first, the chicken or the egg? Experts heatedly take opposite sides. You get rid of debt faster if you put all available cash into paying off balances. BUT You have no reserves for the unexpected if you spend everything that […]
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